


Edric Dayne - A Life in the Shadows of Legacies

by AugustStories



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin
Genre: Brotherhood Without Banners - Freeform, Character Study, Dawn - Freeform, F/M, Growing Up, Guilt, Legacies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-25
Updated: 2019-04-25
Packaged: 2020-01-31 19:51:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,413
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18598258
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AugustStories/pseuds/AugustStories
Summary: There is a sword hanging over his head, there are ghosts haunting his mind, there are expectations choking him.Edric Dayne grows up in the legacies of his family and tries to find his own two feet.





	Edric Dayne - A Life in the Shadows of Legacies

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Crow on the Cradle](https://archiveofourown.org/works/17025783) by [grumkin_snark](https://archiveofourown.org/users/grumkin_snark/pseuds/grumkin_snark). 



> In the continued spirit of no longer sitting on pieces I have long since finished, I'm popping this one out here. It's just something that came up as an idea at some point. It doesn't take itself too serious, so maybe read it like that.

Edric Dayne is five years old and his greatest hero is an uncle he has never met, and then comes his father who cannot fight anymore since the war a long time before Edric was born but father tells stories and answers all his questions.

Edric is all over the castle all day long when he isn't forcing himself to sit still during his lessons, he has a sword of wood at his hip, made by his grandfather, his mother's father, and every time he gets the master-at-arms to set aside a few minutes for him is the best day of young Edric's life. He is not supposed to train until a year on but the old knight likes his enthusiasm, tells Edric that his father and his uncle once were like that, too.

When mother and father are busy and the knights are training for good, Edric likes to slip away from the maids' watchful eyes and sneak down to the private solar where father only takes special people to talk in private.

Edric climbs up on the settee in there and he has no eyes for the scrolls or books lying around because his father is a messy person. He sits back and looks up at the sword up on the wall, there is not a spot of dust on the milky blade nor on the silver hilt. The sword shines in sunlight, in the light of the fire and the most in the light of the stars, and it is taller than Edric still.

Dawn.

Ten years ago his uncle had still held her, fought with her and been deemed worthy of her.

And since then all she did was hang on a wall. Except for those rare moments when father took her down to clean her. He was the only one allowed to touch her, and even that he did when he was alone.

Edric looks up to Dawn and thinks of all the great stories about Uncle Arthur and he knows that he wants to be just like him.

\--

Edric Dayne is seven and he is leaving Dorne with three knights of Starfall to become a page to Lord Beric Dondarrion who has just gotten betrothed to Aunt Allyria. He is terrified right down to the very bones, the first time he leaves Dorne and it's without a return date.

There is a good chance he will not see Dorne again until he is a knight, whenever that may happen, and it scares him so much. His father is dead one year, almost to the day when Edric looks over his shoulder and sees Starfall disappear at the horizon, he doesn't speak a word to his guards who want to cheer him up with stories over adventures.

He is seven years old and he is leaving his home on his mother's orders, 'Arthur left as well when he was seven' she would tell Edric, 'And he became a great man.' His uncle Arthur also returned only twice to Dorne after he had left for court as a child, to be knighted and sworn in as the Sword of the Morning when he was five and ten and then to die at a lonely tower not far from home.

Edric doesn't want to share that fate.

He doesn't want people to always remind him of Uncle Arthur's greatness and Aunt Ashara's love for adventure and father's wisdom. All of them are dead. Edric doesn't want to admire dead people anymore.

He just wants to become a knight and then return home, his family doesn't do well outside of home and he doesn't want to get hurt, too.

\--

Edric Dayne is twelve and he is pushing himself to not think of Uncle Arthur at all because he is walking with a group of people that he would no doubt frown about. Arthur Dayne defeated one Brotherhood, his nephew is riding with another, it is shame that has Edric draw away from the others on some nights.

He is the youngest by far and he is just a squire and the things the men talk about around the fire make his ears burn anyway, so he takes that as his excuse to wander off, just far away that he can have a little silence but still be in shouting distance if anything happens. No one disturbs him, though he knows that they notice.

Edric is different among them, not just because he is just a boy still but he is also a Lord, the only one next to Beric, the others are knights and hedge knights and some of them are nothing at all, bound together by a cause. They all know who Edric is, Beric insisted on it even if Edric would have wished for the complete opposite but Beric wants him protected, wants the focus be on saving Edric if a fight ever turns too badly on them.

Edric knows nothing about the others, not aside from Thoros anyway, on some days he thinks that no name he was told is right and truthful, they all have something to hide. And he hates it, though he isn't any better.

This night they are not far from the Ruby Ford, though hidden in a forest that gets cut in two by the Trident and someone had joked about searching for Prince Rhaegar's rubies in the water later, Lem had gone for the man's throat while Edric had blinked at them all and felt his mood going even darker then before. He had stalked off when Anguy and Thoros had jumped up to pull Lem back or help him, whatever, Edric hadn't cared.

He had walked to the river's shore, sat down on a rock, pulled off his boots and then dipped his feet into the water, Anguy had warned the man earlier about taking a bath here, the river was too strong, might carry them away if they weren't careful. Edric had snorted and looked over the barely there movements of the Trident, a tranquil puddle compared to the Torrentine.

He had been away for maybe half an hour, debating over how disappointed the ghost of his uncle could be if he only knew Edric was trampling all over the legacy Arthur Dayne's name had carried, when dead branches snapped on the ground behind him.

"Ned?"

"I want to be alone," he answered the unspoken question in Beric's call of his name and he hunched his shoulders even tighter when Beric didn't leave but instead walked closer.  
"I've never seen you in a mood so bad, and this has been going on for days now," Beric told him and Edric glared at his image in the water, contorted by the river's flow, "Did something happen? You know the men talk, they never mean any of it."

"No."

"What is it then? You've barely spoken a word in days and you're glowering at everyone. I think some of the men are actually getting scared that you might be possessed." Beric tried his hand at a joke and Edric turned his head to glower at him. "Was it something I did? Or didn't do? Listen, Ned, I know this isn't how you should have earned your spurs, not the way into knighthood a boy like you should take."

And Edric is tired. He is tired, he is sore from too many days riding tense as a bowstring, he is angry and bitter because only a five minute ride from their camp a rebellion was won, his uncle's best friend was killed, his uncle's death was signed and his father lost friends and the strength in one knee. Edric is tired because he can't sleep in this place, feels like ghosts are choking him, feels the disapproving stare of his father's on his back and the disappointed stare of eyes on him that he had never known in real life.

"Can you just please leave me alone?"

Beric sighs but leaves, but not without squeezing Edric's shoulder first and telling him to come to him if he wants to talk.

Edric is left alone for an hour, the sun is already setting when someone else comes walking up to him, he grunts when a tall figure sits down next to him and drops Edric's own cloak over his shoulders and back. Yellow gives his new companion away as Lem and Edric actually takes the piece of bread offered up to him in silence for once but Edric knows Lem, he'll start talking soon enough.

"Sometimes I wonder as well if he would be ashamed."

"What?" Edric blurts out upon the strange words having fallen from Lem in a weirdly subdued tone, he turns to look at the older man and frowns at him, Lem is staring down into the riverbed, "Who are you talking about?" Edric wants to know, gut rolling, he had only entrusted his thoughts to Anguy so far because Anguy was the only one here he counted as a friend, the closest to him in age.

If Anguy had talked to anyone, Edric was going to throttle him.

"Your uncle. I ask myself the same questions, how disappointed he would be, how ashamed, if there was any way he could understand why I am doing what I'm doing," Lem made everything even more confusing and Edric could only stare at him, he hadn't exactly spent time trying to figure out where Lem might come from, though he certainly had more honed fighting skills that most of the others. Lem had been taught his sword and riding, he hadn't figured it out himself.

"You knew my uncle?" Edric wonders in utter bafflement, there was only one man that word could mean after all, his mother had no brothers. Lem smiled, a bitter one lost in the past, still not looking at Edric.

"I did," he says after a moment of silence, "I think I even knew him well. He...he didn't teach me how to fight but he took over my training when my...prince was too busy with his duties." Edric's mind went dead silent for a short moment before his mouth dropped open and he gaped at the man who so very slowly then turned to finally look at him, brown eyes were guarded. "Neither Lem, nor Lemoncloak are my names, I think that much is obvious. It's a mask I'm hiding behind because if anyone knew my real name, knew who I really was, then frankly half these men here would want to kill me probably." And under Edric's disbelieving eyes and jumbled thoughts, Not-Lem pulls something out from under his tunic, a piece of cloth, just big enough to count as a handkerchief maybe. "I've been thinking for months that I should reveal myself to you, that you have a right to know who I am. I just never found the right timing." He uncurls the cloth and Edric's heart gives a sharp thud when he sees the symbols on it. "My real name is Richard, Edric. And I can tell you that I understand your thoughts, but I can also tell you that Arthur would understand. We are protecting the little people who can't protect themselves, we are protecting them against evil men who want violence for the destruction it causes. We are doing what Arthur dreamed about before his cloak turned white. He'd understand."

His thoughts don't disappear, not as simple as that, but in the days that follow, riding between Anguy and Lem – who isn't Lem at all but Richard Lonmouth, the Silver Prince's first squire and a man who knew Arthur Dayne better than his aunt does, who doesn't choke on stories because it hurts too much like Edric's father always had – his shoulders lose their tension and his face rediscovers what a smile feels like again.

He asks questions and Lem answers, smiles and laughs even and Edric thinks it even does them both well as they ride further North along the Trident, cross the fields that had bled with a rebellion's end.

\--

Edric Dayne is fifteen and Jaime Lannister and Richard are holding each other at swordpoint in the courtyard of Winterfell while Jon Connington has his face buried in his hands and Jon Snow and Aegon Targaryen are looking incredibly confused on the other side.

Edric is still holding the reigns of his horse and Dawn is so heavy on his back, Anguy is freezing under his furs next to him, fingers twitching for his bow, but holding back because Edric had raised a hand to stop him. He is a young man now, world's away from the boy who stared at Richard at the shore of the Trident and had felt so disgusted with himself.

He is dressed like a Lord of Starfall now, and though he is carrying Dawn, it is only for the sword's strength and hopefully deadly outcome against the Others, he is not a Sword of the Morning, he doesn't want to be. He has ridden North to help, bringing Dornish fighters with him, he knows Aegon already but he doesn't know Jon Snow and he is curious, and he is also now awkwardly watching Richard glaring at the Kingslayer.

There are Knights of all possible alliances around them, Knights of the Vale, men from the Golden Company, Crownlanders, Northmen and Dornishmen who are all watching Edric as if he has any clue on what to do.

Well, maybe he does.

It's an idea at least and Aegon and Jon Snow certainly seem too frozen for anything.

Edric pushes the reins of his horse into Anguy's hand, gestures for him and the other men that have come with him to remain where they are and then he draws Dawn from her scabbard. The sound has both King and former Lord Commander of the Night's Watch move, eyes shifting over to Edric. Jon Snow immediately looks alarmed but Aegon only raises an eyebrow and holds the other man back with a hand on his shoulder while Edric walks over to Richard and Ser Jaime hissing at each other, insults, blame.

Connington has a strange look in his eyes when he looks up as Edric passes by him but he doesn't say anything, Edric prefers it that way, he isn't Connington's biggest fan. It makes a terrible terrible noise when he sends Dawn crashing down on Richard's and Ser Jaime's swords, a mess of steel, Valyrian steel and Dawn, it's like the gods themselves are crying out to not have this mess touch.

It has the desired effect though.

Richard lowers his sword immediately and goes straight and upright and calm when he sees Dawn, all fight and tension bleeding out of him. Ser Jaime drops his sword and jumps back as if something foul had touched him, wide green eyes staring from the sword to Edric and back again. Edric has grown, a lot in too little time his aunt complains, his limbs ached something fierce for a while, his back is still killing him in the cold now sometimes but he finally isn't that little boy anymore that everyone looked down on.

He's tall now, he's got rough hands with callouses from fighting and hard work, he's got muscles from training and riding, he's seen the good and the many bad parts of Westeros, he's kept his House and the people at Starfall out of the mess that Prince Doran had thrown Dorne into with the Targaryens, and he did it all without losing respect. He welcomed Aegon with his head held high and coming North now was not following an order, it was his own choice.

"Cut it out," he says and sticks Dawn into the snow, "I don't think we're here to blame each other for past mistakes. And I may not have known him like you two did but I can honestly say that I don't think my uncle would for even a second approve of this behavior." His hand twitches where it still rests on Dawn's hilt, even if Edric made no movement, and it feels like ghostly approval, Ser Jaime and Richard both stare at him, guilt in their eyes, admonished like little naughty children.

Aegon looks highly amused and Jon Snow a little stunned, Edric feels a bit proud of himself.

And then he catches sight of Arya leaning against the railing of a walkway higher up and she is grinning down at him, inclining her head when they lock eyes and Edric feels that pride grow.

A few days later, Aegon politely tells his guards to fuck off and then pulls Edric into the godswood, deeper and deeper into it until they get to the weirwood tree with the horrifying carved in face and Jon Snow sitting on a rock. The two of them are thick as thieves, Aegon and Jon, Edric is confused over it but he doesn't question it, he would long to have a friend like that but it is hard to have anyone in Dorne see him different than being the young Lord of Starfall, keeper of an ancient legacy. Anguy and Richard treat him much more casually and familiar usually but they're not his peers.

Together Aegon and Jon, they tell him the truth about Jon's parents and the truth over what happened at the Tower of Joy and Edric has to sit down and breathe.

It took nearly two decades but now he finally knows that his uncle didn't die as a jailor, he died protecting what had been thought of as Rhaegar's only living son. Uncle Arthur had died protecting his Queen and his new King.

\--

Edric Dayne is nineteen and he calls the most powerful people in Westeros his friends, Richard and Anguy are wearing lilac cloaks and no one has to hide who they are anymore. Allyria rules in his stead over Starfall while he spends a few weeks then and now in King's Landing, his aunt says she doesn't want to marry anyone she doesn't love and he will not make her, no matter how much his mother disapproves.

Aegon is his King and also his friend, Jon is a Prince but also his friend and when they spar in the courtyard of the Red Keep, white cloaks surrounding them, there are people who certainly think of their father and his uncle but they don't.

Aegon isn't Rhaegar and neither is Jon. Aegon looks the part, enough people can confirm that and though no one wants to hear him sing Jon is said to act like the Last Dragon more than his brother who smiles and laughs much, who loves mingling within a crowd so much that his Kingsguard have permanent nervous twitches, none more than Jaime Lannister.

And Edric isn't Arthur Dayne. Dawn is safely back in Starfall, waiting for one day. He no longer walks in the shadow of a man he had never met but he has gotten to know enough people by now who could tell him tales and stories about his uncle that he feels he knows him now.

At least parts of him.

"Are you going to stare at them all night?"

Edric smiles and turns around on the highest step of the stairs leading up the side of the rebuilt Dragonpit, no longer a means to cage them in but to give two dragons who survived the war a safe home. Rhaegal is not here tonight, Jon is still on Dragonstone, he'll come soon though, Queen Sansa is only a fortnight away from going to the birthing bed if the maesters are right and everyone is nervous. Sansa Stark's mother had five healthy children and no trouble at all in birthing them, but Aegon thinks of his own mother and Jon thinks of his, and the brothers have managed to rile each other up and Edric has come up to the capital to be a shoulder to lean on.

Aegon is sitting crosslegged down in the sand, Viserion curled around him in a wide arch, puffing warm air as he sleeps.

"You're not gonna make star jokes now, are you?" Edric deadpans and moves down to him again, they're alone, Lord Commander Jaime lets Aegon go off alone if it's Edric at his side and if the goal is the Dragonpit. Anyone stupid enough to mean their King harm while Viserion was around wouldn't even get close enough to have need of a sword anyway. "If you're that bored, I am going to get us swords."

"She's gonna be okay, isn't she?" Aegon wants to know then, eyes set on the sand and hands twisted into his doublet, twitchy, nervous, wrung raw with nerves.  
"She's gonna be fine, Aegon." Edric says for what felt like the hundreth time, he needs to put effort into emotions by now because he has used those words so often that they have lost their meaning. By now he is also more worried for Aegon's sanity than he ever was for Sansa's life. "She'll have maesters and midwives, and she didn't have frail health a day in her life. Sansa will be fine and the babe as well."

Edric has brought Wylla along because Jon likes her and she can calm Jon down, and he hopes that with Jon losing his frayed nerves they can keep Aegon from fretting out of his skin once the time has come.

Aegon nods and stands, he has a lot on his mind and Edric waits until he has his thoughts together enough to speak, the realm is calm for the most parts. No one is open about any animosities and aside from some trouble in the Riverlands with outlaws, no one is causing a mess. It could be anything that has Aegon worried aside from Sansa's impending time in the birthing bed, and so Edric waits.

They are good at it, the three of them. Jon, Aegon and Edric, sitting together in utter silence for ages before laughing for hours or arguing loudly over nothing and everything. It drives people crazy on how well they understand each other, how good they are at grasping the others' moods with just one look.

"Griff is sick." Aegon finally gets out with something and Edric snaps his head up to stare at him, mouth dropped open because of everything he could have expected that was certainly not it. His mind flashed back to the last days, to seeing Connington within court, working as busy and tireless as always. He still isn't Connington's friend, the both of them tolerate each other on the best of times for Aegon's sake but none of it meant that Edric wishes the other man suffering.

"Oh Egg..."

"He's not going to die tomorrow or within the next few moons but he's not going to grow grey at my side." Aegon clarified and he looked lost, arms crossed over his chest, Connington is more than just a Hand for him, he is a friend, he was a father and it has to hurt now, knowing he would lose a father when he was just becoming one himself.  
"Egg, I'm so sorry." Edric says and he walks forward until he can set a hand upon Aegon's shoulder, he knows the pain of losing one's father, it has been a decade since he saw his own burn.

"The only other one who knows so far is Jon." Aegon breathed out and there were no tears in his eyes but his voice was shaking, "I didn't even tell Sansa yet because I want her to not have to worry about anything. I wanted to tell you though before I tell Jaime and the other Kingsguard." He paints a picture of hierarchy and Edric frowns at him, surprised over his own importance.  
"Me? I'm grateful for the sign of trust, Aegon, but why put me so high?" He asks and Aegon looks at him, blinking in a confused way as if he is surprised that it isn't obvious what he wants to say.

"Because I'll need a new Hand."

"...What?"

"I trust you. I trust you to keep my secrets. I know that you will tell me to my face if I am being stupid, and you'll fight me if I remain stubborn. You've proven that." Aegon argues against arguments that aren't even out yet, Edric drops his hand and takes a step or two back.  
"Aegon, I'm...I'm nine and ten" and great the stuttering is back, "...I have no experiences..." He goes for the strongest point speaking against this crazy idea, Aegon shrugs his shoulders.  
"You can learn, you're catching up on things way quicker than most others I know. I don't have many people I can trust like I do you, Edric." Aegon also goes straight for the knockdown arguments, an unexperienced Hand is still better than one the King doesn't fully trust, "Sansa is my Queen, and Jon would be a terrible choice." Edric grimaces because yes, Jon can lead Aegon's armies, can talk his brother out of stupid ideas and anger but diplocy and politics is not Jon's talent. "Griff has time yet and between him and Doran, you'll have the best advice, the best teachers."

"Aegon, I..."

"At least think of it."

"I will."

\--

Edric Dayne is two and twenty and the year is awful and wonderful and it really is an up and down, he has no idea how Jon and him keep Aegon standing but they do.

It goes from Sansa giving birth to the much awaited heir – a little brother to Princess Alysanne, a strapping lad with Aegon's pale hair but Sansa's blue eyes – to Connington's death in the same sennight.

Prince Daeron counts four moons when Jon makes Allyria a Princess and it is surely not something that Edric saw coming but he trusts Jon, knows his friend loves his aunt and he knows Allyria loves him. They are happy and he can breathe easily with them keeping an eye on Starfall, his mother is over the moon with Jon as a goodson, she is not so impressed over the green dragon stretching out on Starfall's cliffs but Rhaegal likes his new home.

Three days after the wedding someone tries to poison Ser Jaime but instead half the small council is somehow hit and Aurane escapes the Stranger so narrowly that he's bedbound for almost two moons. Edric sleeps in the Hand's solar for weeks, close to forgetting where his actual chambers are. Doran sends Nymeria and Tyene to find the culprit, Aegon sends Sansa and the children to Winterfell, Lord Rickon promises to protect them. Aegon tells Jon to stay away this time, to remain in Starfall where no one can harm him, Aegon himself is surrounded by white cloaks all the time.

Arya remains in King's Landing.

And it's her who comes to Edric into the Tower of the Hand one early afternoon, the whole tower is crawling with guards in lilac cloaks but Richard and Anguy let Arya pass because they're still scared of her. Edric is asleep when Arya enters his solar after three unresponded knocks, he has finally finished everything that he needed to catch himself up on along with all this mess after Connington's death and he is so tired.

He wakes quickly enough though when Arya shakes him awake.

"They found the culprits."

He groans because why now but he still follows her down to the throne room, between Richard and her, they even manage to keep Edric from running into walls or falling down the stairs and he is somehow half awake by the time two guards open the double doors.

There is a man kneeling on the stone floor, surrounded by white cloaks with swords drawn, the small council is loosely assembled at the side, the only ones missing among that row are Aurane still too weak and abed, and Ser Jaime standing up on the steps below the throne, a hand outstretched to hold Aegon back.

"Lord Hand," Ser Jaime calls out for him when Edric walks closer with his eyes flickering between the kneeling man and Aegon vibrating with anger. "I am glad to see you here this fast. I believe there is a prisoner to deal with."  
"I see," Edric comments and Richard keeps shadowing his steps until Edric has made a circle around the Kingsguard in full formation and climbed three steps of the daise. Arya remains behind on the other side of the spectacle, maybe wanting to cut off exit routes, "May I inquire to the identity of this man?"

He sends a look up to Aegon whose eyes are glowering so much in the stranger's direction that Edric expects the growling of a dragon to be heard soon. When Aegon makes no move to say even a single word, Edric looks to Ser Jaime who is standing only one step above him.

"He claims to hail from Braavos, a man who kills for money."

A cutthroat.

Yes, great, because Edric wasn't paranoid or tired enough.

"Who pays an assassin to kill the Lord Commander of the Kingsguard?" Edric asks out loud and turns half around to exchange a look with Arya, she thankfully understands quick and moves forward on near soundless feet. "I cannot imagine you have many enemies left, Ser Jaime?" Most of them had died now, not even Dorne was holding a grudge against this Lannister anymore, not when he was protecting Elia's son now.

Aegon snarls something in High Valyrian and Edric is glad he understands at least a little now.

"He poisoned the wrong wine?" Edric leans in when he whisper-hisses his question, wanting to confirm what he had understood, Aegon's eyes finally switch down to him. "Whose wine was he meant to hit?" Aegon keeps his eyes on him and Edric blinks back.

Oh.

Him.

Huh.

That was a new one.

"Arya, search him for concealed weapons and poisons," Edric is proud of his voice not showing his shock, he knew his position comes with envy from many people, he just hasn't expected an attempt at assasination within his first year. Was that a new record? He keeps his eyes on a point somewhere over Aegon's left shoulder while King and Lord Commander watch him now, his ears can hear the cutthroat snapping protests over Arya supposedly patting him down but some steps later he is silent again and Edric knows there will be Richard's sword at the man's throat.

"He is clear," Arya announces after a moment and Edrics makes a hand gesture that the white cloaks understand and two of them drag the snarling man away to the dungeon. Aegon dismisses the small council and then the five of them – Aegon, Edric, Arya, Ser Jaime and Richard – move into the small council chamber, the Kingsguard slipping into place in the throne room and the corridor to keep unwanted ears from listening in.

Edric still despises that Aegon sent two of the white cloaks North with Sansa and the little ones along with all of her Northern guards, they don't have enough people to guard the King and keep up the Kingsguard routines.

Everyone is so tired.

In the council chamber Aegon and Edric drop into their chairs at the table while Richard doesn't make a step away from the door and Jaime and Arya begin to pace on either side of them.

"Who would want to murder me?" Edric wonders aloud in utter confusion because the thought is just too ridiculous for him, of course he had pissed people off before, it basically came with the job description but never that... bad.

"Who wouldn't?"

"Arya!"

"That wasn't an insult." Arya hit back at Aegon's outraged face, the two of them either get along or are at each other's throats, there is no middle ground, Edric knows that Jon despairs over it a little. "He is Hand of the King, he holds Aegon's trust and is the one whispering in his ear. Doesn't take a genius to figure out that people want him dead to take that role." Arya points out so deadpan and dry that Richard eyes her again with that 'too freaked out to be really worried' look.

"I haven't even held the position for a year." Edric makes his standpoint clear because none of this is making sense, "I couldn't have made that many enemies already, that serious kind of enemies. Aside from scrolls and quills." He brings a hand up to drag through his hair and then buries his face in it.  
"Maybe you just inherited Conningtons." Richard speaks up for the first time again from his position at the door and Edric can feel into the movement of the table how Aegon flinched.

"That's a scary thought," Ser Jaime mumbles and Edric sends him a glare, "Just saying, Jon had a long life full of making enemies." And Edric doesn't need that pointed out to him again, Connington had made enemies easier than friends.  
"Does anyone come to mind, Ned?" Aegon wants to know and Edric wants to scream, he drops his hand again and meets purple eyes with frustrated blue ones.

"No! I've barely left the Tower of the Hand, let alone the castle, since Jon died. I've been too busy to make enemies." He draws them the image once more, he is starting to freak out and that does nothing good to the straight head he needs right now to not lose it.  
"Are we definitely sure that Edric was the target?" Ser Jaime asks and he is still pacing, his mind is clearly working fast and paranoid, he is so determined on keeping Aegon and Jon save from harm that it sometimes narrows his focus in a bit too much.

And a threat to Edric is a threat to Aegon now.

"He confessed to it," Aegon reminds them all and he is calm now, he can concentrate on something concrete to go after, he has a target, "he was too confused over me accusing him of trying to murder Jaime. He didn't seem so unhappy over Aurane having come close to the Stranger but Aurane has more enemies than hair on his head so that doesn't surprise me. No, he made it clear that his target was Edric."

Yay, his first assassin.

"He didn't lie." Arya brings her assessment into it and Edric congratulates himself on his first assassination attempt, he is never gonna be able to go anywhere without Richard or Anguy again.  
"I can't believe this is happening." He mumbles out in a sigh and then just slaps both of his hands over his face, leaning back in the chair.  
"We'll find him, Ned," Aegon promises him and Ned huffs out a few sounds, "Arya, find Tyene and Nym and make that man talk. I want names. Jaime, I want a white cloak at the entrance to the Tower of the Hand."

"Egg, no, they're already stretched too thin, I have my guards." Edric protests and looks up again, Ser Jaime and Aegon are both looking back at him, both ready to argue their case, "Richard is just as capable as any of your Kingsguard." At the door Richard straightens up and Ser Jaime throws up his hands because there is no word he can say against it.

"We'll get behind this."

\--

Edric Dayne is three and twenty on the day he watches Gerold Dayne walk up the stairs to his execution, his hate filled eyes narrowed in Edric's direction as if he still has any chance of fulfilling what his assassins couldn't achieve.

Three there had been. Two more after the cutthroat found by the King's men. Both of them found before they could even breach the castle walls, one of them by Arya, the other by Jon who has returned to help protect his goodbrother until the one pulling the strings had been found.

Now, out on the square in front of the Sept of Baelor, standing on the raised platform where Gerold is soon going to lose his head, Edric is standing between his King and his Prince, his friends, and he is so disgusted. His cousin, distant, bloody distant cousin longed for Edric's death, not because of his position at the court of King Aegon.

No, Gerold wanted Dawn and Starfall.

And he thought, wrongly thought, that Edric's death would give him both.

Showing just how stupid he is. Without any children of his own, Lordship over Starfall is to go to Allyria in the case of Edric's untimely demise. If she were to die as well without issue, Starfall was going to the line of Edric's father's cousin.

Never to a Dayne of fucking High Hermitage.

Never.

And Dawn was not an heirloom. Dawn was not inherited, Dawn was awarded.

And not to a son of High Hermitage.

Never ever.

\--

Edric is five and twenty and he stands in the Great Hall of Summerhall, smiling at friends and family laughing together. His wedding day is not exactly what one would call traditional, Arya and him chose Summerhall because it is somewhere in the middle between the North and Dorne and it isn't the capital.

The one thing they really agreed on right away is that they don't want attention so the capital got ruled out completely, even if Edric is Hand of the King and Arya is the Queen's sister. Rickon wanted them at Winterfell but Edric couldn't force the North on his mother and Starfall was too far for the Starks to travel, so Summerhall it is.

They have a ceremony in the godswood and the sept, a compromise because they don't want to argue anymore after too many people are proposing ideas. They invite only friends and family, Arya doesn't want the fuss, Edric feels more comfortable with people around him he can trust. The septon who marries them is the same man who married Jon and Allyria and before them Aegon and Sansa, Rickon speaks for them in the godswood.

And now he is standing in the middle of the feast, watching all these people being so happy and it is a weird moment but he finds himself thinking of the people he would have wanted to be here. His father is at the top of his list, immediately followed by Arya's parents and her oldest brother, his uncle, his aunt. Bran insists they are here but Edric doesn't understand his goodbrother's talents and sometimes the younger man scares him still, and Summerhall and ghosts are not something he likes to dwell on.

"Where did your head drift off to?" Arya asks him when she wraps her arms around him from behind, she is wearing a dress, a simple one in silver that according to Sansa went very well with the Stark maiden cloak and the Dayne colors. Edric doesn't really care, he would have married her in drags.  
"Just getting a little tired," he answers her and strokes over her hands, "What do you say about sneaking away?" Arya chuckles against his back and then nods.

Edric is only too happy to grab her hand then and let them slip away while people are still cooing over Daeron and Alysanne trying to mimick their dancing parents. Aegon is just waiting with his comments and Jon is just waiting to knock his brother a head smaller for it so Edric wants to escape it all.

When they are alone outside their bedroom for the night, Arya spins him against the door and leans up to kiss him. "I love you, did I tell you that today already?" She chuckles and he snorts, pulling her close with gentle hands.

"I love you, too."

\--

Edric is fifty and Aegon, Jon and him are more than twice the age that Rhaegar and Arthur ever reached and they're old but happy.

Their children are almost all grown already, some of them even married and thinking about starting families of their own already. The Seven Kingdoms have peace and summer, had it for decades now and it feels good, so good.

Edric spends his time between King's Landing and Starfall but as his oldest grows more secure and independent in handling Starfall's affairs, Arya and him shift more time in the year over into the capital and Jon's and Allyria's home in a rebuilt Summerhall. Their youngest travels with them, the only boy in four children, a carbon copy of Edric, only with more violet eyes.

His sisters are loud, wickedly smart and stubborn and they all know what they want and how to get it, they are all so much like their mother that Edric sometimes wonders how he made it past forty. Arya loves it, of course she does. Their son is quiet, careful and thoughtful before taking actions, a polar opposite of his brash sisters, they all love him to pieces though, protect him and spoil him.

"He's got a skill, the lad," Jaime tells him when they're standing in the courtyard of the Red Keep, watching Edric's little boy laughing while Aegon's sons take turns sparring against him, both of them are so much older and they still take him seriously. "He's better than any boy I've ever seen at that age." Edric nods because he knows, because Aegon and Jon and Richard all tell him the same thing.

His son is a warrior.

His son has a real talent.

"I need someone he can squire for," he says and looks over to the Lord Commander of the Kingsguard, Jaime is old but he isn't slow, "Arya taught him everything she can but he isn't like her, her style of fighting doesn't fit him at all. If you would have him..."  
"Are you kidding me?" Jaime calls out loudly enough that both princes and Edric's little boy stop for a moment to stare over to them, "I'd be honored."

"I just don't want too much pressure put on him, my mother says he is just like Arthur was as a child." Edric reasons and looks back to his smiling boy who twirls and spins and lunges as easy as he breathes. "Maybe he is, maybe he is not. Train him, teach him, but don't think of Dawn, don't push him into Arthur's footsteps." They have both seen it happen, that cloud of legacy pushing too hard on a child.

Aegon's oldest suffered under comparisons to Prince Rhaegar throughout his entire youth, just as charismatic, just as loved, just as admired. Daeron broke and Aegon and Sansa sent him North to his uncle for a while just so the kid could figure out who he was without everyone whispering about ghosts and fate. And Daeron has been more confident than Edric's boy ever was so far, he doesn't want to see his son get smothered by the shadows of a legacies like Edric once had felt it.

"I won't," Jaime promises him and squeezes Edric's shoulder before their paths have to part again, Jaime turns to the boys and Edric returns to the throne room where perditions continue.

\--

Edric is seven and fifty and Arya pretends there aren't tears in her eyes when Edric sets Dawn into the hands of their only son and declares him to all of the assembled crowd in Starfall's Great Hall as the new Sword of the Morning.

He lived a life in the shadows of legacies but he fought through it, crafted his own place, his own legacy, just so his children could be free and unburdened by the ghosts of the past.

So that this one day in the future his son gets back up onto his feet and stands tall and strong while family and friends cheer for him, Dawn glimmers in the light of stars and a Martell Princess smiles happily up at her betrothed. Down in the crowd a Stark is married to a Dayne, beautiful children and grandchildren surrounding them. Up on the daise a Targaryen King is married to a Stark Queen, a stable strong kingdom in their hands.

The ghosts of Starfall come to rest.

Edric Dayne is all grown up, his heart and his soul are at peace, and he knows he made his family proud, especially the father taken from him too early and the uncle he never met. He lived in their legacy and got only stronger for it.


End file.
